The Australian Commercial Radio Awards (ACRAs), previously known as the rAWARDS, are an Australian award ceremony held to recognise outstanding achievements in the

radio industry The "radio industry" is a generic term for any companies or public service providers who are involved with the Broadcasting, broadcast of radio stations or ancillary services. Radio broadcasters can be broken into at least two different groups: ...

. They were first held in 1989, and recognise excellence in all areas of Australian

radio broadcasting Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a lan ...

including

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...

talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

sport Sport is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

and

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have deve ...

. They are run annually by

Commercial Radio Australia Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) is the peak body for the commercial radio broadcasting industry in Australia. CRA was formed in 1930 as the Federation of Australian Radio Broadcasters. It provides representation and advocacy on common statuto ...

and hosted in either

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

or the Gold Coast. There are typically 33 award categories that are peer judged across three divisions:

metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ar ...

, provincial and country commercial radio stations. All judging panels are composed of industry members.

Awards Format

The awards are organised into various categories, with nominees being announced a few weeks before the main awards ceremony. Usually four (on rare occasions five) entries are shortlisted in each of the three divisions and an overall division winner is selected from these finalists, meaning three separate awards are given out per category (one each for metropolitan, provincial and country). A hall of fame member is also generally inducted each year. The night is hosted by an industry member (or members), who is (are) generally employed in an on-air capacity, with revolving hosts throughout the night presenting specific awards.

Previous Winners

A full list of winners can be found on the Australian Commercial Radio Awards website. All winners listed below are in the Metropolitan division.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official site

Commercial Radio Australia
Australian awards Oceanian radio awards Awards established in 1989